Water on the mind of state legislators

Updated 10:41 pm, Thursday, October 25, 2012

The odds of the Legislature funding the state water plan have improved after the record-setting summer of 2011 exposed how vulnerable the state is to a drought, said House Natural Resources Chairman Allan Ritter, R-Nederland.

In his address to local business and civic leaders, Ritter praised San Antonio for dealing with water shortages through conservation and finding new water sources.

The moderator, San Antonio Water System CEO Robert Puente, asked Ritter how a city like San Antonio can move forward with expensive groundwater projects when there is no certainty it will be able to maintain the appropriate permits.

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He pointed out SAWS has invested $40 million in getting groundwater from Gonzales County, but the permit for taking it out of the county is good for only five years.

“That's a significant risk for SAWS ratepayers,” Puente said.

Ritter said that is an issue he believes the Legislature will address.

Another aspect to evaluate is why the boundaries of groundwater districts follow political boundaries instead of the boundaries of the aquifers they govern.

“I wish when we started drawing up groundwater districts, we looked a little further ahead,” he said.

But most of all, Ritter explained, not enough is known about the science of aquifers, both fresh and brackish, to make decisions about how they should be regulated.

“There is this little thing called sound science that is a very big thing,” he said.

Rep. Lyle Larson, R-San Antonio, who has been speaking to public utilities, ground water districts and river authorities statewide, said the state has enormous water resources underground but the regulation governing the use of that water and storage is not established enough to encourage investment.

“Obviously the drought of 2011 showed that we are not prepared for a severe period of dryness,” he said. “We need conservation and reuse, but bottom line, we need new supplies.”